India: 2 police fired for not acting in rape case

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — A top government official says a state in north India has fired two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the fathers of two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang-raped and killed.

Anil Kumar Gupta said Friday the policemen had been charged with criminal conspiracy after they refused to file a complaint or take any action when the fathers reported that the girls had been abducted.

The teenage cousins were raped and killed Wednesday by attackers who then hung their bodies from a mango tree hours after they disappeared from fields near their home in Katra village in Uttar Pradesh.

Angry villagers held protests in the village, demanding action against the police and arrests. Four men have been arrested in the rapes.